


Best Laid Plans

by ivanolix



Category: Legend of the Seeker
Genre: Canon - TV, Character Study, F/F, Female Anti-Hero, Gen Fic, POV Female Character, Season/Series 02, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-26
Updated: 2010-03-26
Packaged: 2017-10-24 18:58:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/266761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivanolix/pseuds/ivanolix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She may be on their side, but Cara's not going to roll over and become good and shiny just for them. It just doesn't make sense.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best Laid Plans

Cara noticed when Kahlan started sleeping by her, and knew that it wasn’t for warmth or as a Richard substitute—though Cara had some vaguely amusing suspicions about the possibilities of the latter. It might be the manner of others to hide behind pretty shields of denial, but Cara found the truth far more interesting in this case.

Kahlan curled a little on her side towards Cara, a soft S-shape of weariness with just a hint of vulnerability. Cara lay on her side, head propped on her hand, and stared at her in the dark. She supposed that Kahlan might have called it sleeping with the enemy, in her head if not in the carefully chosen words she stuck to when speaking around Cara. It made her give just a bit of a snorting laugh to the darkness. Not because Cara would have been offended; that was exactly the problem with her...how did she call them, anyways? Traveling partners? Companions?

Kahlan slept with relaxation on her face, brow unfurrowed and peaceful. Cara knew that a Kahlan Amnell from a year ago would have slapped her current self upside the head and chewed her out with sharp words, just as much as previous-Cara would have killed current-Cara for her deeds—Kahlan probably thought horrified words would be as effective, and Cara had to grant, if it was from Kahlan to Kahlan then there was some truth in that assumption. But that was beside the point. Previous-Kahlan could not have stomached leaving a Mord’Sith free and unopposed in her presence.

Cara knew that if confronted, Kahlan would have some very clear and direct words about how she didn’t exactly trust Cara completely, but she valued her skills and appreciated the _change_ in Cara since her casting out from her sisters. And after hearing that hypothetical speech, Cara knew she wouldn’t be able to avoid a twist in her lip, a quirk of a gleam in her eye. Her _skills_ were far more important to the other three, she knew that. She also knew the implications, which they seemed not to.

It was so easy for those who walked the high road to begrudge a favor to those who had other ideas, to consciously stoop “for the greater good” and use darker means to get a better end. They never went too dark, but they let themselves splash just a bit of dirt on their white dress. They slept with the enemy, if only just once and really it was to save the entire world so they didn’t have to feel bad about it.

The backtracking, the spinning and twisting of truth, the denial, the awkwardly politic words...Cara found it darkly delicious, in the same way that she watched the obliviousness of the animals she hunted and wondered what hunting would be like if they truly recognized their prey status. Kahlan, Richard, even Zedd, they avoided any shade if at all possible, only falling on practical (“selfish”, “unfeeling”) ways as a last resort.

It clearly was the main cause of all their disasters.

Cara grew tired herself as she still watched Kahlan, and itched to tell her that it would be so much more successful if they just stopped grimacing at the very idea of actions a little less...noble. Evil would always be there to fight; there would always be an eventual need for a last resort. So why wait? Why give evil the chance by holding out so long? Why not use a little intimidation, a little theft, a little not-stopping-to-help-every-poor-soul-on-the-way, and reach the end of the battle less frantic.

Cara probably wouldn’t ever tell her companions that she wasn’t holding onto some of her Mord’Sith training just because it was familiar. She could be like them if she wanted to, snowy-white and legendarily moral and driven by a “heart”. There was nothing she couldn’t be if she set her mind to it. Rather, she had no intention of losing the very practical and not-evil things that brought results, even if the word “shady” could be tossed at them.

Because she intended to defeat evil and stand triumphant in the end, and she wasn’t going to deny, being shady was going to get her to that defeat fastest.


End file.
